Expanding Athletic Shoe Market
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The athletic shoe market is no longer the strict province of the professional athlete. Weekend athletes and those who do not participate in any sports wear athletic shoes. Nor have the athletic shoes remained all-purpose: there are shoes for walking, running (on grass and hard surfaces), bicycling, tennis and so on. The variety of shoes available and the fact that athletic shoes are now considered acceptable leisure attire means that the industry has grown tremendously during the 1980s and early 1990s. Today, the industry as a whole had sales in excess of $10.1 billion in 1994, with 1995 sales expected to approach $11.5 billion. This research considers the recent performance of one American shoe manufacturer, LA Gear, and whether this company represents a good investment opportunity.L.A. Gear, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, is the fourth-largest branded manufacturer of athletic and leisure footwear company in the United States, with a 5 percent market share in 1993. L.A. Gear designs, develops, and markets a broad range of moderately priced quality athletic and casual lifestyle footwear for adults and children, both domestically and internationally, with most of its footwear styles selling below $65 retail. L.A. Gear sells its products to leading retailers, including Footlocker, Lady Footlocker, Athlete's Foot, Champs, Nordstrom, and Macy's. International revenue accounted for 28 percent of 1993 revenue. L.A. G
. . .
arrival) was revived, and the company also returned to children's shoes that had lights in the heels. Goldston changed the technology in these latter shoes so that the lights were lit when pressure was exerted on the heels, named them, "L.A. Lights," and marketed the product. L.A. Lights received national attention when a small girl lost in the woods was located because she was wearing the shoes. An adult version of L.A. Lights has sold less well than the children's shoe, but demonstrated Goldston's commitment to bringing new and innovative products to this fickle market.
Goldston left in 1994, and the new president, William Benford, tried to maintain the momentum that Goldston had brought to the company. L.A. Gear went ahead with plans to build a place for itself in the performance category, and the company launched a $7.5 million advertising campaign centering on cushioning technology featuring athletes Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky. The company also reverted to selling to discount outlets when it signed an agreement with Wal-Mart in which the discounter agreed to purchase a minimum of $80 million worth of L.A. Gear shoes each year for the 1995 to 1998 period.
At the same time, L.A. Gear continued to fight for recognit
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
LA Gear, LA Lights, , NKE RBK, LA Gear's, Reebok International, la gear, Nike Low, International Low, Gear Low, Survey August, la lights, la gear's, value line investment, survey august 25, survey august, 25 1995, august 25, shamrock holdings, line investment, recent performance, investment survey august, august 25 1995, discount outlets, line investment survey,
Approximate Word count = 1636
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Expanding Athletic Shoe Market
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
